MCDEVITT: James Taylor traveled own 'path' to success

Contributed photo / James O'Mara Photography
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter James Taylor, whose long career has yielded hits such as "Fire and Rain" and "You've Got a Friend," will perform at the Ford Center at 8 p.m. July 11.

James_O'Mara

"The experience of performing live is like nothing else to me," said 64-year-old James Taylor, who will play Evansville on July 11. "It's a great combination of spiritual food, celebration and party."
Contributed photo / James O'Mara Photography

James_O'Mara

Even if singer-songwriter James Taylor put away his guitar and never played another note, his musical legacy would still be safe and secure.

He's an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he's sold tens of millions of records, filled concert halls the world over, has a bridge named in his honor and even has a permanent exhibit dedicated to his life and work at the Chapel Hill Museum in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he grew up.

Yet there was a time in his life that he felt as though he truly didn't belong. Anywhere.

"I was one of those people who — and I think maybe it's the case with many artists — didn't feel as though I fit in very well," he said via phone from his home in western Massachusetts. "I really felt quite alienated for a long time. I think that happens with artists, and they have to invent their own path."

Taylor indeed cut his own path, and it covered more than a dozen hit singles between 1970 and 1981, including "Fire and Rain," the chart-topping "You've Got a Friend," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and "Handy Man."

He'll dust off those songs and other classics on July 11 when he performs at the Ford Center. Showtime is 8 p.m.

'One of the 5 percent'

Taylor's road to stardom wasn't without some severe detours: He battled depression, for which he was hospitalized on more than one occasion, and he also survived a well-documented addiction to heroin.

Taylor said it's impossible for him to imagine what life would have been like had he not become an addict. Whether he still would have penned so many reflective, introspective songs is anyone's guess.

"I just think it's interesting to speculate, but there's no way of telling," he said. "Certainly, I believe that I've done some of my best work since '83, when I got clean, but I also think that I was pretty functional, or at least functional enough.

"I think that being an artist or a musician is forgiving in terms of what kind of lifestyle you're permitted to lead," he added. "I think that can be a pitfall, too. But I'm lucky. I really am one of the 5 percent of people who manage to get out relatively unscathed."

Compared with his 1970s heyday, since the early 1980s Taylor has had relatively little commercial success, but his fans don't seem to mind. He remains a near-permanent fixture on the American music scene, still filling theaters and other large venues more than 40 years after his first hit, "Fire and Rain," emerged in 1970.

The 64-year-old Taylor said he's unable to put his finger on what's specifically allowed him to endure, but he's not losing sleep searching for the answer. Along with family and his recovery, which he calls "an important part of my life," making music remains at the core of his very existence.

"For me, it's always been about live performance and touring," he said. "We've kept it up, I guess. It's something that, if you learn how to do it well over time, you keep your audience and are sustained by it, fed by it. That's the case with me.

"I love my audience, too," he said. "I don't think that's always true of performers. But in my case, I really want to find them, I want to reach them. The experience of performing live is like nothing else to me. It's a great combination of spiritual food, celebration and party."

His own boss

One major perk of Taylor's exalted status in the music business is that he doesn't need to be tethered to a traditional record label. In essence, he can record about any project he wants and then find the right vehicle for it.

In 2004, for instance, he released a collection of Christmas songs through Hallmark. He's also put out several CDs via Hear Music, which is the musical imprint of Starbucks Coffee Co. In 2010, he teamed up with his longtime friend and musical collaborator Carole King to release "Live at the Troubadour," yet another one-shot deal.

"There's an element of that that's great, to be sort of beyond the era of being signed to a record company for 10 years at a stretch and committing to giving them five albums at a time," he said. "It's much better now for me to be able to go shopping for a partnership for each individual project. It keeps it really fresh."

Taylor also has taken more than a casual interest in his website, www.jamestaylor.com. Visitors can sign up for video lessons in which Taylor provides detailed deconstructions of some of his most famous songs.

"We sort of alternate back and forth between little study pieces that go into the details of my technique, and demonstrating some of my songs," he said. "We've been taking our website increasingly seriously for the past couple of years. As we've developed our Web consciousness, that gave us a place to put these things and make them available.

"(In addition), people routinely teach 'James Taylor's guitar style,' but often they get it wrong," he said. "There are some finer points to it that sometimes escape people, so I thought there'd be some interest in making that available. I just wanted to put it all down, make a record of it—put in on the permanent record, in a way."

'It does take on a shape'

Taylor says there was a time that he was unable to have any kind of meaningful long-term outlook on his music career.

Such perspective may have kept him focused on the present, but it also may have prevented him from enjoying his many successes — not to mention the affection of his many fans.

It's only now, he says, at a time when his career is closer to its end than its beginning, that he's really able to digest — and enjoy — what he's spent a lifetime building. All the awards. All those honors and accolades. And all those gold and platinum records.

"Looking back at it, it does take on a shape," he said. "… In the beginning I just went from project to project without thinking about any idea of a goal or a future even beyond a week or so. It was just very in-the-moment…

"(But it all) helps you sort of say, 'Well, OK, I don't need to feel so competitive anymore, I don't need to try to waste my time thinking about my position.' I can basically just relax and be grateful for having been accepted this way."

***

IF YOU GO

WHAT: James Taylor in concert

WHEN: 8 p.m. July 11

WHERE: Ford Center

TICKETS: $59.50 to $79.50, available at the Ford Center Ticket Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at 800-745-3000. (Additional charges apply to all Ticketmaster purchases.)